Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1887-09-01
AFTER FIFTEEN YEARS.


Former Student In Siberia.
Our Odessa correspondent reports q
Siberian incident narrated by civil
engineer, just returned from Central
Asia. where he has spent the last six
wears. The monotony of his residence
i'm those remote provinces was broken
by an occasional hunting expedition
into Siberia. One of these trapping
expeditions, which included younger
member of one of the Grand Duc1
families, the party were one evening
belated in a pine forest and at some
distance from the days bivouac. They
were utterly astray.
A stentorian view-halloo reverberat-
ing through the silent recesses of the
forest depths brought to the assistance
and guidance of the party wOod-cut--
ter-an old man of some threescoreo
years, with tangled locks, coarse kaf-
tan and bark-swathed feet Under the
old mans guidance the party found a
rude hut, a charcoal fire and some sim
pie cooking utensils. The engineer
noticed that the old wood-cutter, when
unobserved, scanned his face rather
attentively. He took quiet opportu-
nifty of asking the old man if he OBJ
served in him any resemblance to some
one he had previously known. "a very
strong resemblance, was the reply.
''Were you not some fifteen years ago
a student of the Richelevski Gymnase
in Odessa?" The engineer answered
affirmatively. ''And do you remember
Prof -P'' Certainly; he was a
man beloved by every student in his
class. L shall always remember kindly
the amiable and learned professor who
disappeared 50 suddenly and mysteri-
ously from Odessa. But what do you
know of himP"-
The old wood-cutter for the first
time smiled, the heavy mustache and
beard had hidden the lines of the mouth
in repOse. The young engineer had
not forgotten the peculiarly sad sweet
ness of his old professors smile. The
ragged and picturesque wood-cutter
and the former learned professor of
Sanskrit and comparative philology
were the same. 1.-The rencounter,"o
continues our correspondent, ''was,
under the circumstances. naturally
at once both pleasing and painful to
my friend, to whose immediate aad
anxious inquiries the old man replied
sadly: All Gods will, my boy. As to
the suddenness and mystery of my dis
appearance from Odessa the secret po-
lice might have explained. Nothing
beyond an unfounded suspicion of dis
affection to our Little Father and pre-
posterous charge of disseminating a
revolutionary doctrine have sent me to
this lifelong Punishment. But do
not repine. l have sufficient phil
osophy left to apply myself to the fell
ing of pine-trees with the same zest as
that with which 1 formerly delighted
to pursue a knotty pathological prob
lem. Am not wise in my generation
and old age?
81 am deprived of the sight and
companionship of old friends, but God
gives me health and a portion of con- .
tentment. Ny masters pay me with
but few unkind words and two rubles
per mensem. My old Odessa pupils
paid me six rubles an hour. But what
of that? have sufficient. Sometimes
old memories draw tightly around the
heart and give me infinite pain. Then
swing my heavy adze with greater
force and endeavor to forget. 1t is to
me JOY to look upon the still youthful
face of my old pupil, but do not probe
my heart, child. L ask you not to
speak to me at parting. You were al
ways obedient. and you hear me. God
keep you! Goodbye The old man
would not allow my friend to convey
any message to relatives or acquaint-
lnces who, he said, had probably long
since forgotten his existence, and he
would not disturb dead memories.
How many others are there like the old
professor, men also of birth, breeding
and brilliant intellectual parts, Ian
gushing out their lives in the dreary
Hilds of Siberia for a baseless suspicion?
The reflection is saddening. ''-LeUant
Herald.